Remember about a week ago when I said I was back? Well, that was kind of true and kind of not. I had finally gotten back into town after a week away to Florida, yes. However, I was only in my house for – hmm…maybe two and a half days before I had to pack up more gear and head over to Maggie’s house for a week. In an attempt to make up for the few days of work I missed out on while off galavanting around Ocala I picked up a few extra shifts at the coffee shop. Which means sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of Maggie’s room so I can actually get to the coffee shop in the morning. Not having a car puts a serious kink into what hours you can work.

I borrowed a laptop from my folks for the duration of my stay with Maggie and it was brought out a couple of times during our four days of working together. Most of what we looked up was costume-related. And, of course, I updated the blog. 😀

We’ve decided to check out Farpoint this year. I had originally put it on my list of possible conventions last year but we had ultimately opted out of it. After a relatively lackluster Halloween costume season (by comparison to previous years) and missing out on the end of the Ren Fest season due to horrible weather I was itching for another chance to don a costume and parade up and down some hallways with fellow geeks of the costumed persuasion.

So, Farpoint it is.

The hotel is already booked. Maggie and I, true to our usual con-going habits, are both working on some new pieces for this convention. She’s putting together a Sith costume (it’s cool, as usual) and I have finally cobbled together all the supplies I’m going to need for my Popple costume. You know, the one I mentioned – fleetingly – in my last Dragon*Con post? It’s now graduated to “in progress” standing.

I’m also going to be doing some alterations to the Blink Angel costume I had already finished. Okay, a little more than just alterations. I’m remaking the dress entirely. Maggie and I are looking at a rebuild of the wings – not scrapping the whole thing, but building longer, more solid panels that will attach to the back and be a) more comfortable and b) less likely to pull away from the body. I’ve also got to repaint my stone arms, as they are WAY too dark. And I might just remake my mask entirely.

All of this has to be done in a three week timeline. It’s my intention to not have to rush this time around. I’m only working two shifts a week these next couple weeks (at the moment) and I’m going to be structuring my time so it’s divided evenly between working on my thesis in the morning and afternoon and working on costumes in the evening. I’m not taking classes or dealing with an internship at the moment so I don’t have that to worry about. The only thing that I see possibly cutting into this plan is making alterations to the resumes I’ve been sending out, but I don’t see that as an honest-to-goodness concern. At most there will only be a few changes to the file here and there.

Preliminary work has started on the landstrider costumes, as well. We’ve got a deadline for those, as well: Maggie and I would like to have them finished in time for Dragon*Con this year. I finally got my hands on a new DVD of The Dark Crystal (my other one “mysteriously” disappeared) and will be pouring over the landstrider scenes with my finger firmly on the pause button. I’ve already made a quick sketch from some reference pictures and I’ve got an idea of how I’m going to build the heads so they can be mounted securely on our own.

Now I’ve just got to go check Unique (my favorite local thrift store) for cheap bicycle helmets. 🙂